


The Sky Opened Up

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album)
Genre: Captivity, Community: 1-million-words, Crossover, Gen, Soldiers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1230826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley wakes up, captive, in a strange place</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sky Opened Up

**Author's Note:**

> For the 1MW matchmaker crossover weekend challenge, with the crossover prompt: Riley and Party Poison

"Well well well, what've we got here?" a voice penetrated the darkness around Riley, and he struggled to escape it.

"Looks like a soldier," another voice said. Riley didn't recognize either voice, but they spoke English, which was a relief.

"Not BL/ind, though," the first voice replied. "Not a Drac- Hey, he's coming around! Look alive, Sunshine!"

Riley blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fuzziness from his vision and the fog from his mind. He had been in Texas, investigating a site of paranormal activity, and... and... the rest was still a blank. A little judicious wiggling indicated that he was tied to some kind of square pillar, his arms stretched back at the shoulders and his feet tucked to the side. He didn't feel any injuries, however, which was usually a good sign.

A moment later, light flooded the room, and Riley was able to take in his surroundings a little better. One of his captors? rescuers? was leaving, and through the door Riley saw a hint of scrubby desert. The room itself was grungy and worn, but it appeared stable. Before his visual inspection could continue further, his attention was sharply drawn back to the other figure, who settled down backwards on a spindly chair a few feet in front of Riley.

"You got a name?" he asked. Riley recognized him as the first voice, the one that had mentioned blinding. He wasn't acting aggressive, and Riley's name was on the ID in his pocket anyway. They probably already knew it.

"Riley," he answered easily.

"What kind of name is that?" his captor asked. He leaned forward into the light and Riley could see that he was young, with bright red hair. Despite his baby face, however, his eyes were cold, as hard as any soldier's.

"A normal one, where I'm from," Riley said. "Why, what's yours?"

After a moment's hesitation, the man replied, "Party Poison."

Well, the exchanging of names was a good sign, even if the other's was obviously a fake. Riley felt marginally better about his chances of survival. "Nice to meet you," he said as cheerfully as he could manage.

Party Poison eyed him doubtfully, but after a long moment he replied, "Yeah, sure. Where are you from?"

"Norfolk," Riley replied promptly. That was on his ID card too, so no point in hiding it. "Are we still in Texas?" The brief glimpse he had gotten of the desert outside could have placed him anywhere in the American southwest, or a handful of other places, so it was a reasonable question.

Worryingly, Party Poison appeared even more confused by his words than by his early greeting. "Is Texas one of the Cities?" he asked.

Well, that wasn't a good answer. Riley quickly reevaluated his situation. While nothing around him had initially screamed 'other dimension' he certainly knew they existed, and he had been inspecting a temporal anomaly... "Not really a city, so much as a state," he offered. "However, I'm beginning to suspect that I'm a long ways from home. What do you call this place?"

"Zone Six," Party Poison replied promptly.

Riley tried not to frown at such an unhelpful answer. "What are the cities called?"

Party Poison shrugged. "The Cities."

"And what is this whole world called?" Riley prompted, "Zones, Cities, all of it combined?" It was a long shot, but he was hoping for an answer that he recognized. If not, a planet or dimension name could be helpful.

Party Poison's expressions shifted rapidly through confusion, shock, suspicion, and finally a scary kind of understanding. "You were in some computer simulation, weren't you?" he asked, with the air of someone putting together a puzzle. "They had you plugged in, didn't they? Did you escape, or did they dump you?"

Riley was unsure which answer would serve him better, so he shrugged as well as he was able. "I don't know? One moment I was in Texas, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up here."

"We found you out on the dustlanes," Party Poison supplied almost absently, as he worked through what Riley had said. The term meant nothing to Riley, so he said nothing. After a moment Party Poison continued. "They probably dumped you. Though if you were ghosted… they usually wouldn't…" He trailed off, glancing around the room. Riley waited, and soon Party Poison collected himself. "We took your... weapon," he said.

Riley had assumed that was the case, as it was 'taking captives 101,' and other than a few cultural differences, his captors appeared to know what they were doing. Their bondage skills were certainly effective.

"Were you any good with it?" Party Poison asked.

Riley considered his answer. Party Poison and his companion were clearly fighting against someone; someone that he assumed had been holding Riley captive in some kind of virtual reality world. If he agreed to fight on their side, would they give him enough freedom to find his way home? What if the only way back was through that enemy? Should he present himself at the gates of one of those Cities and ask for passage back? He couldn't do that unless he was freed first. "Yeah, I'm pretty good," Riley admitted. "But you use something different?" The way he had hesitated over the word 'weapon' was quite telling.

Party Poison patted his hip, where Riley dimly saw holstered a brightly colored weapon: gun-like, but more reminiscent of a toy than anything lethal - at least back home. "Blaster," he explained.

It sounded like a ray gun. Many years ago Riley would have said there was no such thing, but after the Initiative, after Buffy… he was willing to believe anything now. "If the trigger mechanisms are similar, I should be a good shot with that too," Riley offered.

Party Poison considered that for a moment, and when Riley saw him begin to waver, he played his final chip. "Tell me about this enemy of yours. They keep people trapped?"

Startled, Party Poison glanced at his gun - blaster - then at the door. Seeming to come to a decision, he looked back at Riley. "They're called BL/ind," he began. "And they want to control the world."


End file.
